Field Study: Can Androids Be a Social Entity in the Real World ?

In this paper, we discussed an autonomous android robot that is recognized as a social entity by observers in the real world. We conducted field experiments to investigate what kind of function the android needs in order to be recognized as a social and humanlike entity by visitors. In the field experiment, the android made conversation with multiple visitors by using several touch displays. The result showed that the visitors evaluate the android as humanlike even though this interaction differs from normal human-human interaction. Moreover, the experiment suggested that the android has a social influence - advertisement effect on visitors. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.4.3 [Information Technology and Systems Applications]: Communications Applications General Terms Design, Human Factors, Experimentation.